Chocolate terminology is the working vocabulary of how chocolate is made and handled: what's in it (cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, cocoa solids), how it's processed (refining, conching), and how you work with it in the kitchen (tempering, seeding, enrobing, ganache). Know these 15 terms and you can read a couverture spec sheet, pick the right chocolate for the job, and diagnose problems like bloom before they ruin a batch.
We sell chocolate to pastry chefs, chocolatiers and serious home bakers every day, and most of the questions we get come down to one of the words below. Here's what each one means and why it matters when you're standing at the bench.
Cocoa liquor is roasted cacao nibs ground into a paste. Despite the name, there's no alcohol in it. It's simply the whole bean, containing both cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Under U.S. FDA standards, chocolate liquor must contain between 50% and 60% cacao fat by weight.
It's also the benchmark for chocolate types in the U.S.: semisweet and bittersweet chocolate must contain at least 35% chocolate liquor, and milk chocolate at least 10%. You'll also see it sold as cocoa paste or cocoa mass. Pastry chefs use it, like our Valrhona Cocoa Paste 100%, to deepen cocoa flavor in a ganache or batter without adding sugar.
Cocoa butter is the natural fat pressed out of cocoa liquor. It gives chocolate its snap, its gloss and its clean melt: good chocolate is solid in your hand and melts on your tongue because of cocoa butter's narrow melting range.
In the kitchen, pure cocoa butter is used to thin couverture for spraying, to make colored cocoa butter for bonbon shells, and to temper. A deodorized version like Cacao Barry Cocoa Butter adds fat without adding flavor. For ratios and quality grades, see our guide to using cocoa butter in chocolate.
Cocoa solids are the non-fat part of the bean, and they carry most of chocolate's color and flavor. When cocoa butter is pressed out of the liquor, what's left becomes cocoa powder.
One thing that trips people up: the percentage on a bar (say, 70%) usually counts cocoa solids and cocoa butter together. Two 70% chocolates can taste very different depending on how that 70% splits between fat and solids. If you want to go deeper on reading those numbers, see Decoding Chocolate Labels, or browse our professional cocoa powders.
Refining grinds cocoa solids and sugar into particles small enough that you can't feel them on your tongue. It's the difference between silky and sandy. A study published in Scientific Reports (2019) measured commercial dark chocolates and found their particle size (D90) ranged from about 19 to 31 microns. The same study found tasters could notice a particle size difference of roughly 5 microns in melted chocolate.
So when a manufacturer talks about a "fine" or "extra-fine" grind, they're describing refining, and it directly affects mouthfeel.
Conching is a long, slow mixing and aerating step that happens after refining. It drives off harsh, volatile acids and moisture, coats every particle in cocoa butter, and rounds out flavor. Rodolphe Lindt invented the conching machine in Bern, Switzerland, in 1879. It's a big part of why Swiss chocolate became known for its smooth texture.
Conching can run anywhere from a few hours to several days depending on the maker and the flavor they're after. Longer isn't automatically better. It's a flavor decision.
Cocoa butter is polymorphic, meaning it can set into six different crystal structures (Forms I through VI), each with its own melting point. Only one gives you the result you want:
| Crystal form | Melts at approx. | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Form I | 17°C / 63°F | Soft, crumbly, melts too easily |
| Form II | 21°C / 70°F | Soft, crumbly, melts too easily |
| Form III | 26°C / 79°F | Firm, poor snap |
| Form IV | 28°C / 82°F | Firm, good snap, melts too easily |
| Form V | 34°C / 93°F | Glossy, firm, best snap, melts near body temperature. This is the target. |
| Form VI | 36°C / 97°F | Hard; forms slowly over weeks in storage |
Everything in the next few terms, including tempering, seeding and bloom, comes down to getting Form V crystals and keeping them.
Tempering is controlled heating and cooling that makes cocoa butter set in stable Form V crystals. The classic sequence is: melt fully to erase every existing crystal, cool to let crystals form, then gently rewarm to melt out the unstable ones so only Form V remains.
Well-tempered chocolate releases cleanly from molds, snaps sharply, has a satin gloss and resists bloom. Untempered chocolate sets soft, dull and streaky. Always check the temperature curve printed on your chocolate's packaging, because dark, milk and white each work at different temperatures. Milk fat lowers the temperature milk chocolate needs. For a step-by-step method, read our chocolate tempering guide.
Seeding is the most practical way to temper without a marble slab. You add solid, already-tempered chocolate (callets, fèves or chopped pieces) to melted chocolate. The seed brings stable Form V crystals with it, and they act as a template for the rest of the batch to crystallize around.
A second version uses powdered cocoa butter. Callebaut's method for its Mycryo cocoa butter is to add 1% by weight (10 g per 1 kg of chocolate). Add it at 34°C for dark, or 33°C for milk, white or colored chocolate. Then work dark at about 31°C and milk or white at about 29°C. Discs like Valrhona Guanaja 70% fèves or Callebaut 811 callets are shaped to melt evenly, which makes them ideal seed.
Couverture is professional-grade chocolate with a relatively high cocoa butter content, made to be tempered and used for coating, molding and dipping. Under EU standards, dark couverture must contain at least 31% cocoa butter and at least 35% total dry cocoa solids. That extra cocoa butter is what gives couverture its fluidity when melted and its shine and snap when set.
Compound or "coating" chocolate swaps some or all of the cocoa butter for other vegetable fats. It doesn't need tempering, but it doesn't taste or snap like the real thing. Browse our full range of professional couverture, or see our breakdown of which companies make the best couverture.
Ganache is an emulsion of chocolate and a liquid, usually cream. The ratio decides the texture. More chocolate gives a firmer ganache for truffle centers and piped fillings. More cream gives a softer one for glazes, drips and cake fillings. Butter, glucose or invert sugar are often added for shine, shelf life and texture.
Because ganache is an emulsion, it can break and look greasy or grainy. Usually you can bring it back by blending in a small amount of warm liquid with an immersion blender. An all-purpose couverture like Callebaut 811 is a reliable workhorse for ganache.
Viscosity is how thick melted chocolate is and how much it resists flowing. Manufacturers often call it fluidity and rate it on the bag. According to Callebaut, the more fluid your chocolate, the thinner and crunchier the shell it makes. Less fluid chocolate suits casting larger molds in one pass, and more fluid chocolate is better for detailed molds.
A practical rule of thumb: pick high fluidity for enrobing, thin shells and fine molds (for example Valrhona Satilia Noire 62% or Cacao Barry Guayaquil 64%). Use medium fluidity for general molding and ganache (Callebaut 811). Use low fluidity for mousses, baking and flavoring (Callebaut 70-30-38). Adding a little cocoa butter thins chocolate. Moisture or overheating thickens it fast.
Enrobing means completely coating a center, like a biscuit, wafer, caramel, nut cluster or ganache slab, in a thin, even layer of tempered chocolate. In production it's done on an enrobing line that pours a curtain of chocolate over the centers. In a small kitchen it's hand-dipping with a fork.
Two things make enrobing work: a high-fluidity couverture so the coat stays thin and even, and centers at cool room temperature. Cold centers can shock the chocolate and cause cracking or bloom.
Bloom is the whitish or grayish film or streaks that show up on chocolate's surface. It's safe to eat, but it looks stale and changes the texture. There are two kinds, and telling them apart tells you what went wrong.
Fat bloom happens when cocoa butter (or another fat) migrates to the surface and recrystallizes. It looks like dull gray streaks or a soft film, and it feels greasy. A quick test: rub it with a warm finger. Fat bloom smears and melts. Common causes are poor tempering, temperature swings in storage, and fat migrating out of nut-based fillings like praline or gianduja.
Sugar bloom happens when moisture dissolves sugar on the surface. When the moisture evaporates, the sugar recrystallizes as a dry, gritty white coating. Rub it and sugar bloom stays dry and rough. The usual cause is condensation, for example chocolate taken from a fridge into a warm, humid room, or stored somewhere damp.
Prevent both by tempering properly and storing chocolate wrapped, in a cool, dry, dark place with steady temperature, away from strong odors. Bloomed chocolate isn't ruined: melt it completely and re-temper it and it's good as new. Our guide on how to save bloomed chocolate walks through it.
| Term | In one line |
|---|---|
| Cocoa liquor | Ground cocoa nibs: solids plus butter, no alcohol |
| Cocoa butter | The bean's natural fat; drives snap, gloss and melt |
| Cocoa solids | Non-fat part of the bean; color and flavor |
| Refining | Grinding particles fine enough to feel smooth |
| Conching | Long mixing and aeration that develops flavor and texture |
| Cocoa butter crystals | Six forms; Form V is the stable, glossy one |
| Tempering | Heating and cooling to lock in Form V crystals |
| Seeding | Adding stable crystals to guide tempering |
| Couverture | High cocoa butter chocolate made for tempering and coating |
| Ganache | Chocolate and cream emulsion for fillings and glazes |
| Viscosity | How easily melted chocolate flows |
| Enrobing | Fully coating a center in chocolate |
| Chocolate bloom | Whitish surface film from fat or sugar |
| Fat bloom | Greasy gray streaks; smears when rubbed |
| Sugar bloom | Dry, gritty white coating caused by moisture |
No. Cocoa liquor, also called cocoa mass or cocoa paste, is just roasted cacao nibs ground into a liquid paste. "Liquor" refers to its liquid state when warm, not alcohol. It contains roughly 50–60% cocoa butter, with the rest being cocoa solids.
Couverture has a higher cocoa butter content. Under EU standards, dark couverture needs at least 31% cocoa butter. That makes it more fluid when melted and gives it more gloss and snap once tempered. Regular baking or compound chocolate often has less cocoa butter or replaces it with other fats, so it's easier to use but doesn't perform the same way for coating and molding.
Yes. Both fat bloom and sugar bloom are cosmetic. The texture and appearance suffer, but the chocolate is safe. For baking, use it as is. For coating or molding, melt it fully and re-temper it to restore gloss and snap.
Rub the surface with a warm fingertip. Fat bloom feels greasy and smears or melts away. Sugar bloom feels dry and gritty and doesn't melt. Fat bloom points to a tempering or temperature problem, and sugar bloom points to moisture.
No. Ganache, brownies, mousse and batters don't need tempered chocolate because the chocolate is mixed with other ingredients and never has to set glossy on its own. You temper when chocolate needs to set by itself with shine and snap: molded bonbons, bars, dipped and enrobed items, and decorations.
Thick chocolate is usually caused by overheating, a small amount of moisture (even steam) getting in, or simply a low-fluidity chocolate. If it's the chocolate's natural viscosity, you can thin it with a small amount of melted cocoa butter. If water got in and it has seized, save it for ganache or baking.
Ready to put these terms to work? Shop our professional chocolate collection, including couverture from Callebaut, Valrhona and Cacao Barry, plus cocoa butter and cocoa powder, in chef and wholesale quantities.
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